The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #86636   Message #1612223
Posted By: Joe Offer
23-Nov-05 - 03:32 PM
Thread Name: DTStudy: Billy the Kid
Subject: ADD: Billy the Kid (2)
The Traditional Ballad Index has an entry for a second "Billy" song:

Billy the Kid (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Billy was a bad man And carried a big gun. He was always after greasers And kept them on the run." Billy shot a white man "every morning." But one day he met a worse man, "And now he's dead and we Ain't none the sadder."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: outlaw death police
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife-Cowboy/West 96, "Billy the Kid" (3 texts, 1 tune, but only the "C" text goes here)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 136-137, "Billy the Kid" (1 text)

Roud #5098
Notes: From the Fife text it is not clear whether this song actually refers to Billy the Kid; since Billy was white, it would appear not. But they may have other versions which imply otherwise. - RBW
File: FCW096C

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2005 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.


Billy the Kid

Billy was a bad man
And carried a big gun
He was always after Greasers
And kept 'em on the run.

He shot one every morning,
For to make his morning meal.
And let a white man sass him,
He was shore to feel his steel.

He kept folks in hot water,
And he stole from many a stage;
And when he was full of liquor
He was always in a rage.

But one day he met a man
Who was a whole lot badder.
And now he's dead,
And we ain't none the sadder.

from John A. Lomax, Cowboy Songs (1910, 1916), page 344
(no tune, no background or source information)

This version is also found on page 136 of American Ballads and Folk Songs, by John and Alan Lomax (1934) - no tune or background or source information.


The same version is #96C from Cowboy and Western Songs: A Comprehensive Anthology, by Austin and Alta Fife, noted as coming from seven volumes from the private collection of Stella M. Hendren of Kooskia, Idaho. You'd think Lomax and the Hendren collection must come from the same source. No tune in the Fife book - anybody find one for this version?
OK, so we have the very same version in three sources, but no tune. Has anybody ever heard this version sung?